Name: Vegetarian Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 tablespoon curry powder; 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger; 2 carrots, sliced; 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into cubes; 1 sweet red pepper, chopped; 1 cup reduced-sodium ready-to-use vegetable broth; 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 cup 10% or 18% cream; 1 (19 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed; 1 cup frozen green peas, thawed; Salt; 1/2 cup plain yogurt; Lime wedges

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + carrottop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ginger + sweet potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together306 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, clove, ginger, carrot, sweet potato, pepper, flour):

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits better
Turmericfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, clove, ginger, carrot, sweet potato, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Chickpea	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	134
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Vegetarian Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry